University of Utah video game school publishes first title

Screenshots from the student video game, "Robot Pinball Escape," produced at the University of Utah's Entertainment Arts & EngScreenshots from the student video game, "Robot Pinball Escape," produced at the University of Utah's Entertainment Arts & Eng

Screenshots from the student video game, "Robot Pinball Escape," produced at the University of Utah's Entertainment Arts & Engineering department.Screenshots from the student video game, "Robot Pinball Escape," produced at the University of Utah's Entertainment Arts & Engineering department.

"It is a valuable experience when a group of students from different backgrounds and disciplines can see a thesis project through to completion, including a commercial launch," the game's producer, Kurt Coppersmith, said in a statement.

In the third-person-perspective game, the player controls "Tilt," a transforming robot inside a gigantic pinball machine who must find his way out with his rocket ship. The game is designed to be played like a pinball machine, as well as a 3D "platforming" game similar to "Mario Bros."

"I imagined the inside [of a pinball machine] just being crazy," said 26-year-old U. graduate student Eugenia Hernandez, who came up with the idea for "Robot Pinball Escape." "I thought of something large-scale and being inside it, like 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.' "

Ten graduate students from the U.'s Entertainment Arts & Engineering program (EAE) spent two semesters working on the game. Another eight graduate students from the same class were developing a first-person survival-horror game called "Erie." That game has not yet been published.

The two-year EAE master's program was ranked sixth in the nation last year for master's programs in video game design, according to an annual report by The Princeton Review, but has since slipped out of the top 10. The U.'s undergraduate program was ranked third in the nation in the newest survey.